This weekend we took a little time to move our red wiggler worms into their new home. Truly, it’s a palace: It’s got multiple stories, and it boasts a spigot on the bottom floor that will let us collect liquid from the worms’ castings–a super-nutritious substance for the garden.
Here’s the palace with just the first couple of layers in place, sans worms.
We added some layers of newspaper…
…then the worms, with their castings. On the right is their old house: a repurposed restaurant-size mayonnaise bucket.
Next we prepared bedding for the upper story, which stacks on top of the layer with the worms in it. The idea is that they’ll migrate upward toward fresh food and bedding, leaving their castings behind. The bedding consists of coir (the hair from coconuts!) mixed with compost. We put some food scraps in there too, to entice the hungry wigglers.
And finally, we capped it all off.
This is a great example of something we probably would never have splurged on for ourselves, but having gotten it as a gift, we’re excited to improve on our formerly primitive worm system. The castings really are magic in the garden, and after collecting the liquid, we can make a "tea" by diluting with water–thus getting more fertilizer for our buck.
Anyone else used one of these, or rigged up your own multiple-chamber worm house?
